


Janel's Story

by scherryzade



Series: Newcomers [8]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-21
Updated: 2011-01-21
Packaged: 2017-10-14 22:50:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/154327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scherryzade/pseuds/scherryzade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leaving the City of the Ancestors proves hard, but not for the reasons Janel was expecting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Janel Ettesdotter Medicat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Janel wants to do is get out of the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted to my LJ account on [November 21st, 2009](http://scherryzade.livejournal.com/10083.html)

When Janel was training for the medicat, she had a friend who took up meditation in the Athosian manner. Ertas swore by it, and breezed through exams with studied calm, but it had annoyed Janel no end, the pointless ritual of it, the candle wax dripping onto her notes, the vile tea.

So she has to bite her tongue when Teyla Emmagan, Daughter of Tagan, Mother of Torren, Sister to her people, elegantly leans to offer her a cup of something that looks and smells like water from a ditch. A ditch something drowned in quite recently.

At least it's in a small ceramic dish, elegant as the woman who offers it, not the large utilitarian cups that the people of the city - the people of Earth, she corrects herself - use for their 'coffee'.

Janel bows her head towards Emmagan, who smiles as she bows back. Janel bows to each of the Athosians in turn, and they each bow to her and smile the same weary, understanding smile.

She doesn't dislike the Athosians. They are effortlessly kind, and they do not judge.

She is here primarily to meet Halling Arraken (Son of Jaliya, Father of Jinto, Brother to his people, and maybe she's being a little harsh, because they don't press the status on her as they would have even a generation ago).

The child Torren frets, and is picked up by his father Kanaan (she can't remember his status, because all she can think of is the soldier in the infirmary who had smirked and called him the 'babyfather'. She has to take a mouthful of tea to drown the laughter that threatens to bubble up, because she made the mistake of asking what he meant and, oh, _that_ she's heard on the Delta)

The Athosians all turn and smile at the child, and she really can't dislike them, because it's clear how true their affection is for him. Torren - Torren _John_ Emmagan, Son of Teyla, Child of his people - is the most important person in this room. They smile, and it isn't the weary smile that they offer her (offer the people of Earth, too, which can only be a result of the meditation). They smile at Torren with pure joy.

She doesn't dislike the Athosians. They are good people.

Halling is here to offer her a place in the main Athosian settlement. She doesn't think too hard about why this is. She doesn't think about what her options would be if she refused to stay with the city's allies.

"I'm not a farmer," she says, instead.

Halling nods, and the others echo his gesture. "Teyla tells us you are a medicat."

"Was. I - it's been a long time." But she keeps wandering from the infirmary room they keep her in, watching the too-familiar chaos of their triage hall.

More nodding, more sympathy that she can't doubt is sincere. "The Tau'ri have been more than generous with their medical expertise, but it would be propitious to have a medicat in the township once more."

"I -" Janel really doesn't know how to counter that. She can't keep saying that she hasn't been a medicat in a long time, not when the infirmary here in the city has made her hands itch to heal (the irony is not lost on her - the urge to be useful makes her feel almost ill).

"You do not have to make a decision now," says Teyla, soft and understanding. (And elegant, thinks Janel, viciously.)

"No, I -"

The way the story goes, through the Rings, is that the Athosians were fools to throw their lot in with the people of the city. But while their population has been culled (and worse, if she is to believe the stories she heard in the infirmary), their planet ruined, they have not been scattered in the way so many peoples have. The Athosian settlement is small, but it grows.

Athos survives.

She takes a sip of the tea, and fails to suppress a wince at the taste, and Teyla laughs. "It is not to everyone's taste, I know. I am sorry." Teyla takes the little tea dish from her. "Here, I will bring water." Teyla smiles, and it is perhaps not so weary and elegant, and Janel finds it in herself to smile back.

The water is clear and chilled, and she feels it clear her mind as well as her palate.

She does not dislike the Athosians, and she does not doubt them. She doesn't think about not having any other choice.

"I would be honoured," she says, because their damn formal speech is wearing off on her.

~

Teyla stands beside her, impossibly still. Janel fidgets, shifting the bag of clothes and other necessities that they have donated (with kindness, not charity, but it still galls her).

Janel had expected Teyla's teammates to accompany her to the Athosian settlement, but Dr McKay is still recovering, and Colonel Sheppard has been called away to his superiors on Earth (Earth, she thinks, in a whole other _galaxy_ ).

Dex has declined the opportunity to visit the Athosians, and stays admirably straightfaced when he explains this to Janel in front of Teyla. But he says goodbye with warmth, his hand on her shoulder and his forehead dropped to hers in a gesture half Satedan, half Athosian.

When he says "May your luck rise like the blind-moon tide of the Delta..." it does not hurt as might have, and she can answer "And stick like the black mud of the marsh," and echo his grin.

So instead, they are accompanied by a lesser team, one she saw in the infirmary on her first day in the city. They do not have Teyla's stillness, but their casual demeanour as the Ring is dialled should be as reassuring.

Her hands shake, and she grips her bag tighter.

She must have seen the Ring open a thousand times. There is no reason for this to be different.

Captain Rodriguez steps through first, her weapon ready. She is quickly followed by the younger of her two subordinates. They wait a moment, and then the radio buzzes. "Okay, we're clear."

Teyla smiles at Janel, then turns to step through the Ring.

Janel is quite ready to follow, to leave the city behind her, but she finds that she has not moved.

The Ring is no different here, despite the high windows behind it. And yet it seems dazzlingly bright.

"Janel?" Dr Gibson's hand is on her shoulder, and his voice is soft with concern.

"I'm sorry," she starts, but can't get further.

"It's okay," he says, and speaks into his radio. "Hey, Captain? I don't think we're coming through right now."

Janel starts to protest, but his hand tightens on her shoulder.

"Oh-kay," says the captain, confusion obvious in her voice.

"I'll send Mark through -" The other soldier doesn't need prompting, just steps through.

There's a moment's silence, and Mr Woolsey calls down to them. "Problem, Dr Gibson?"

"No problem, sir." Dr Gibson's voice is brightly pleasant. "Slight change in plans."

The radio buzzes once more. "Okay," says Captain Rodriguez, and her voice has the same bright clarity. "We're gonna stick around here for a little. Teyla has some people to visit. Rodriguez out."

The Ring snaps out.

~

It seems odd, in such a structured society, with all their titles - Colonel, Doctor, Captain, Sergeant - that their leader is simply 'Mister'. It's an odd word, halfway between master and mistress, and she doesn't really see any of either in him.

Dex had called him a bureaucrat, and that word she knows. There are always bureaucrats. _That_ she can see in Mister Woolsey, and the pile of papers stacked on the table between them.

"Ms Ettesdotter - I'm sorry," he says. "I don't know the correct term -"

They like their titles. It doesn't simply reflect their work, it defines them. She's been called many things, and once it would have been Ettesdotter Medicat - Medicat Ettesdotter in their style, but that's not a title, that's just what she did, and it's easier, here, to just be - "Janel. Just - call me Janel."

He nods, and makes a note, and she resists the urge to roll her eyes. "Janel." He lays down the pen, and looks up at her. "Please don't be worried. I only want to -"

"You want to know when I'm leaving."

She expects him to be affronted, and she knows that he, of all people, should not be the person she snaps at, but she's so sick of them all stepping so softly around her. She's been taking their talking cure, trying to find a way to walk through the Ring, and she's tired of the way her head keeps betraying her. She wants gone, and she wishes they understood this.

He doesn't take offense, but he doesn't give her that sorrowful look either. "When, or if."


	2. The Stray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're so busy persuading Richard to let her stay, they seem to have forgotten what she wants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted to my LJ account on [November 29th, 2009](http://scherryzade.livejournal.com/10377.html)

The fallout from the incident on Ordan has been spiralling. The SGC, already nervous about the state of the city's relations with the Genii, pulled Sheppard back to Earth for a week to discuss strategy. AR-1 wasn't the only team to encounter an ambush that week, and nobody's fooled by the Genii's claims of innocence. There were no worse casualties than Dr McKay, but they may not be so lucky next time.

It's ceased to be a diplomatic problem, but that doesn't mean that Richard doesn't have his hands full, not least with attempting to rescue the alliance with Ordan. Ordan and its market, the cross-Gate connections they can make there, are too important to lose. He has to bend over backwards, promising them medicine, weapons and training to defend themselves if the Genii return, and a good quarter of the trade the city does in Pegasus.

Richard rues the day he ever thought Pegasans were less sophisticated than himself or his colleagues. Ordan's ambassador had a clear, un-covetous gaze, and she didn't waver in her demands, because they were perfectly judged to be more than Richard would have offered, but not so bad that he'd laugh her out of the city.

News of the incident has travelled, inevitably, and so he's fielding nervous messages from their other allies. The SGC wants to start sending double teams through the gate, a plan that he and John judiciously decide to ignore. Their allies are not going to be reassured if they start sending more soldiers through the gate - the four-person teams are too well known. But Sheppard doubles the number of Marines on stand-by when teams are off-world, and they cut back on gate travel, never more than three teams out at a time.

It leaves the city on edge. Gate teams with nothing to do, scientists with research on hold, Marines waiting for the alarms to sound - everybody's waiting for something to happen. Whatever it is, nobody expects it to be good.

And there's Janel Ettesdotter.

In some ways, Richard is surprised that it's taken this long for any of his senior staff to come forward with a lost soul in need of shelter. He hasn't exactly been wandering around waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it's been at the back of his mind since the woman froze in the gate room.

Dr Keller has come prepared, with coffee and fresh pastries.

She has an itemised list of all the reasons he should allow Janel to stay. Chief among these, of course, is that Janel is - or was - a medic. A 'medicat', which seems to translate more as paramedic than doctor. Given the comparatively advanced nature of Janel's culture, Dr Keller believes that with training she would soon reach a level of expertise to match their own staff.

Not that they are exactly low on medical staff. He points this out to Jennifer, who deflates slightly.

"Besides," he adds, "Wouldn't that training serve her better amongst the Athosians?"

"Maybe. No. I don't know." Jennifer sighs. "They need a - a GP. Someone with broader experience. Janel's trained for emergency medicine. She could really be _useful_ here."

She pauses, then pulls herself up straighter. "And it wouldn't hurt to have a different perspective on the work we do," she says in a rush.

Richard watches her for a moment. "I'm thinking that's not your argument. Teyla?"

"Ronon," she counters. "But it's true, we've had problems. Not everybody - it's not that -" She blushes. "We've made mistakes. _I've_ made mistakes. We make assumptions about diseases and treatments all the time, and we can't rely on Ronon and Teyla to set us right."

"But as you said yourself, Janel is trained in emergency medicine, not the sort of diagnostic medicine you're talking about."

"No, I know, but - she knows more than anyone without training -" By which she means Teyla and Ronon. The few planets with a level of medical expertise comparable to their own are not among their allies. They can't rely on the Ancient database, either, because they don't always even know where to start searching.

"Will you at least consider letting her stay?" asks Jennifer.

"I'll talk to her, but I'm not promising anything."

~

He's beginning to wonder if any of them asked Janel if she wanted to stay. She's so clearly uncomfortable, even in this small office away from the gate room. And when he raises the issue of whether she will stay, she snaps at him.

"I don't want your pity."

"I assure you -"

"I don't want anybody's _charity_."

"You realise that several of my senior staff have gone out of their way to persuade me to let you stay?"

"I didn't ask -"

"I'm beginning to gather that." She glares at him, but he ploughs on. "I have no wish to force you to stay if you do not want to. The Athosians' offer remains open, whenever you chose to leave."

She sags at that, sinking low in her chair. "I _know_ , and they're so -" She sighs. "They are good people." She makes it sound - actually, she sounds the way Sheppard does when he's forced into another harvest festival. "I'm from the Delta. We're - we were never 'good people'. I'm not a farmer, or a food-for-flax trader. They live in _tents_. I was raised in a black-brick tower house."

"We have other allies. The Travellers -"

"Oh, Ancestors, no," says Janel. She mutters something he cannot catch.

"Ms Ettesdotter -" He stops when she snorts at that. "I'm sorry. Janel. If you don't want to stay, but you can't leave -"

"Better to drug me and throw me through the Ring," she says.

"I'm hoping it won't come to that -"

"Oh, I know, I know, your talking cure, your psychiatry. Dr Dreyfus and his 'Tell me what the Ring means to you'." She catches Dr Dreyfus' soft and slightly cloying tone so well that Richard has to choke down a laugh. "I have lived with the Rings all my life. I can't tell you why I can't walk through them now."

"I was going to say, we have ships ourselves. When the Daedalus returns, we can take you to New Athos, or another planet, without using the Stargate. If you wish."

She gives him a bitter smile, and nods, but doesn't say anything.

For all that he doesn't want to push her into a decision, Richard finds himself wanting to persuade her to stay. Maybe he's spent so long having to persuade people to do things they disagree with, he can't do anything else.

"Dr Keller assures me that you would be a useful addition to her team. That you'd bring local expertise that we have been lacking."

"You live in the city of the Ancestors. I doubt there is much I can offer."

"You said yourself, you are not a farmer or a trader. Your home -" He hesitates, because as casually as she mentioned the Delta, she flinches when he says 'home'. "The Five Towns sound to me like a city. We live in a city, but we're not all city folk, and Atlantis has not always been our home."

"You called yourselves the Children of the Ancestors," says Janel. She doesn't look surprised, however, merely assessing. And maybe a little scornful.

"We - came to be called the Children of the Ancestors, and it seemed politic to maintain that - image."

"That fiction."

"Yes. But not to our allies. We came to Atlantis through the Stargate, just like you. And we came from a distant galaxy. We might not like to admit it, but there is a lot we still have to learn about Pegasus."

"From me?" More than a little scornful.

"Dr Keller seems to think so. I would believe her, except that if you are reluctant to stay, I suspect you would be even more reluctant to work with us." He can be scornful, too, and it's the right thing to say, because she doesn't take offense. Instead, she sits up straighter. "I am prepared to offer you a place here, but I don't intend to offer you charity. If you stay, it's to do a job. If you don't want to work with us, there is no place for you in Atlantis.

"We didn't come here on a whim, Janel. We are here for a reason."

"What, to raise Wraith and then fail to kill them?"

"In pursuit of knowledge, Ettesdotter Medicat."

She opens her mouth to retort, then stops, and gives him a thin half-smile. "You did know the correct term, Mr Woolsey."

"I believe Specialist Dex mentioned it."

"And you made a little note."

"Yes."

She watches him for a moment, frowning. "Doesn't take a medicat to tell you to stay away from the Wraith."

"And on that front, I can't guarantee that your advice would be followed. We don't intend to let the Wraith go unchecked."

"But the Colonel did wake them, didn't he?"

This is the question he doesn't want to answer, because - "Yes."

"Ancestors," she says, but her anger seems to die. "I would not want that on my conscience."

"No. He wears it lightly, but he carries it at all times. Colonel Sheppard - sees the destruction of the Wraith as something of a personal goal."

" _Soldiers_ ," she hisses. "Always finding cause _after_ -" She breaks off, looks down, running her thumb back and forth along the edge of the table. "Trying to fix the things they break."

Richard watches as she traces circles on the surface of the desk. As she thinks.

"One of your soldiers said," Janel says suddenly, softly. "He said that this was a city of second chances."

The sentiment is not surprising; Atlantis has been a fresh start for many people on the expedition. "I believe many people consider this to be so."

"The others - they all say there's nowhere they'd rather be."

Richard can't help but smile. There are days when he feels the same.

"He said - he's here because he has nowhere else to be," she says, looking up, defiance gone. "I - I don't have anywhere to go."


End file.
